Serbia wins bronze in the FIVB Men´s Junior World Championship - Volleyball
The bronze medal match of the FIVB Men´s Junior World Championship took place between Serbia and the United States on the August 10th in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The match took four sets to reach its close with the Serbian side earning their first
ever medal in the tournament’s history.
The first set of the match was dominated by the Serbians all through. The Americans were seen struggling with their game as the Serbians bagged the set by a significant margin. The second set saw the Americans step up their game a bit but it was not enough
to stop the Serbians from winning another set. A two set deficit got the alarm bells ringing for the Americans who put up an impressive show in the third frame to take the contest to a fourth set. However, the Americans were smothered by the Serbians in the
fourth set and the final set scores were as follows: 25-15, 25-20, 23-25 and 25-13.
The Serbian coach, Milan Zarkovic, expressed himself in the following manner at the press conference after the match had reached its close: “This bronze medal is a big goal we achieved. Seven of my players had won the Youth World Championship two years ago
and it is very important to them be among the top three teams in the world in Junior too. I am sure most of them will go for more medals in the senior team now. We work to build players for the future.”
The American coach, John Hawks IV, made the following statements: “Fourth place is the worst position you can have as you have lost the two most important matches, but I am sure many other teams would like to be in our place and I am happy for my players.
Atanasijevic is a great player and we could not stop him today.”
When the match kicked off, the Serbian team was able to get an easy lead at 13-6. The Americans could not do much except trail behind all the way until Serbia had bagged a win at 25-15. The loss of the first set enabled the Americans to step up their game
and take the lead at 7-3 in the second set. The Serbians did not let the advantage stay for long with the Americans and tied the score at 16-16. From that point on, the Serbians played strong and grabbed another win at 25-20.
The Americans had the lead at the start of the third set at 7-2 but the Serbians eventually closed in the gap at 19-18. But it was America that was able to finish the set on their terms at 25-23. The fourth set however had Serbia written on it from the beginning
and ended in their favour at 25-13.
The Serbian Aleksander Atanasijevic was able to lead the scorers from both the teams by posting 24 points while the American Taylor Sander tallied the highest number of points in his team at 13.
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